How to understand trials and tribulations in Islam — and how to get through them
We are living in extremely difficult times. COVID-19 and its devastating impact still continues to affect millions of people, who have suffered from a loss of income, a loss of health, or worst still, even a loss of life of loved ones. This in conjunction with the fact it is an extremely confusing time, unprecedented in the amount of strange things that are going on and the madness shows no sign of unrelenting any time soon.

This has had the effect of seeing many people down and out, practically begging for mercy. Some people are wondering how much more can they even take and why is this even happening to them.

It is thus important to understand “what are difficulty`s.”
Essentially, there are two types of difficulty`s in Islam.

There is museeba which translates as misfortune. This is difficulty that comes from Allah directly, and therefore is out of our control.

There is another type which is called muskhila. This directly translates as difficulty and it comes out of the wrong doing that you personally do.

Both are part of the tests and trials of life. But it’s important to know the distinction, even for the sake of your own sanity.
A Museeba is not your fault. It’s out of your control. It’s a trial from Allah. Think of an act of Allah, a natural disaster.

A Mushkila is something you caused. You may have consumed too much food and now you have a stomach-ache. That pain you’re now undergoing is your own fault.

So, now that we know that there are actually two types, what do we do?

For mushkila, it’s easy. Self-reflect. Ask yourself difficult questions — is there anything I’ve done here, that could have caused this issue I’m going through? Then stop the excess or the wrongdoing and do something about it. Look deep within yourself at what you could have done wrong, do istighfaar and stop doing it and take positive action. (Easier said than done, of course, but the important point is that it is within your own control to overcome it.)

For museeba, it’s a bit more difficult. This is a trial from Allah. What can you do? Well, the Islamic response is simply to be patient and persevere. To have sabr, etc.

Oh!
Nothing ground-breaking or overly empowering there, right? So, are we supposed to just take the pain and ride with it?
Why can’t Allah make it easy for us and take the difficulty away?

But there is really quite a beautiful simplicity in such a response. It’s for an important reason.

The Islamic dua to be read for all kinds of difficulty is actually “Innalillahi wa inna ilayhi rajioon” — that’s supposed to be the correct response. It’s not just the dua for when someone dies as it’s come to be known. This is actually the dua that a difficulty has afflicted you, and for us to remember that nothing in life is permanent. Nothing really belongs to us after all, it is all temporary and transient and we just need to get on with it.

Going to the Quran, Surah al Asr encapsulates this perfectly.

“By Time! Man is indeed in loss. Except those who have believed and done righteous deeds, and advised each other to truth and to patience.” [Al-Asr: 103]
What is interesting is that truth is emphasised and done so BEFORE patience.
Why? Because when you’re on truth… you will need patience. You WILL be afflicted with tests, trials and hardship. Look at the stories of the Prophets AS, and the greats who came before us. Their lives are full of difficulty and strife. The Prophet ﷺ had challenge after challenge — pretty much from birth.

Our issues pretty much pale into insignificance in comparison.

As a Muslim, if you are on truth — your life should NOT be easy. Properly practising, life will undoubtedly be more difficult and so you need to be able to understand the nature of difficulty and embrace it as a core component of your own development.
Let’s look at an example. When you go to the gym, you know you’ve had a good workout when you’re in pain the next day. If you’ve had no pain, and it’s easy — essentially you’ve gone and ritually lifted weights but it’s not had any benefit for you. Life is like that. If your life is easy peasy and you’re not having any difficulties as a result, then perhaps things are not quite right? Same with your Islam. Perhaps you may not be practising your Islam in the correct way?

Struggle maketh the man.

Without struggle, you become a snowflake.
Growth happens out of your comfort zone. A caterpillar goes through its metamorphosis in the cocoon only because it struggles and flaps and tries to release itself. That period of struggle is what develops the wings and eventually transforms it into a butterfly. Without that struggle — the wings don’t form and the caterpillar doesn’t develop.